The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” This is absolutely true, but this doesn’t happen with countries. Some have oil or diamonds in their depths, some don’t have access to the sea, and some have aggressive neighbors for a long time…
But what countries and people have in common is that just as any person can become a self-made one, rising from the very bottom to the top, or completely lose everything they had, a country can also make a real 180° turn – for both better and worse. And this viral thread in the AskReddit community is dedicated to such examples.
More info: Reddit
- Read More: Person Asks Online “What Country Has The Craziest Rebranding Ever And Why?”, Gets 27 Responses
#1
Botswana. They went from the poorest and most uneducated country in Africa, to one of the richest and most modern. This was all largely due to the visionary first president that they had, Sir. Seretse Khama. They’ve had no civil wars, coups, nothing.
Image credits: BlackbeardsPegleg
#2
Lithuania. They went from the misery of USSR to the best growing country in Europe. Nominal GDP grew 276% from 1990 and they are erasing all the Soviet architecture (or restoring it) in favor of modern infrastructures. Stunning
Image credits: brando1710
#3
Japan. from isolationist nation, to naval superpower, to entertainment and electronic hub all in 150 years
Image credits: Alaska-Now-PNW
#4
Biased, but Estonia. Former USSR. Lead the way of anything IT related for decades. We’ve had pretty much our whole life digital for decades. Nowadays some other countries are catching up, but E-stonia is cool.
Image credits: HHegert
#5
Iceland. People 20-30 years older than me who worked in nursing homes would sometimes welcome people who’d literally lived their entire lives on a farm with grass roofs and no electricity. Went from a poor, isolated, extremely homogenous and unremarkable country to one of the best countries in the world by many if not most metrics in the span of a century.
My girlfriends grandmother grew up in a tiny village in the west fjords totally isolated from the world, no water, no electricity, they had to walk over the mountains to the next fjord if they wanted to go meet boys.
Image credits: empetrum
#6
Ireland went from a very poor country to one of the richest (on paper) countries in the world
Image credits: Calm-Internet6926
#7
I swear, maybe 2 decades ago Finland was the most depressed country on the planet. There was even a news show about it. The people were unhappy and not accustomed to making eye contact and had a high rate of depression.
Today, somehow, they are the happiest most well-adjusted people on Earth.
Image credits: ScumEater
#8
Germany, no explanation needed
Image credits: Autisticandballistic
#9
Singapore. Wasn’t too long ago that they were so poorly thought of that Malaysia dumped them. These guys did the revenge bod thing to their economy and voila! World’s most powerful passport.
Image credits: umairone
#10
Maybe not the craziest ever but Switzerland going from “who wants to hire mercenaries?” to “we don’t participate in any war” is quite amusing.
Image credits: Corbeau99
#11
Britain: our monarchy once owned most of the globe. now they’re a tourist attraction.
Image credits: junkdrawertales
#12
Mongolia went from ruling a large portion of the world to not mattering too much.
Image credits: Unfair_Mushroom_4419
#13
Surprised Turkey with Kemalist reforms has not been brought up.
In the 1920s/1930s went from the late medieval Ottoman Empire to a secular state with full language & alphabet reform, abolishing the caliphate, giving women right to vote, adopting last names, adopting modern Western clothing, increased literacy & education.
Image credits: ContentMaudlin
#14
Czechoslovakia went from existing to getting occupied by germany and splitting to getting together again only to be occupied by soviets to get freedom to splitting again while also changing name everytime that happened, also they did all that in 75 years
Image credits: chladas
#15
Well Istanbul was Constantinople…
Image credits: burzummor
#16
China also had a crazy rebrand. From imperial dynasties of different warlords, to collapse, then communist revolution, then opening up a bit to the world… and now they’re essentially hypercapitalist with a communist dictatorship. Talk about versatility!
Image credits: RATTLECORPSE
#17
South Korea. Sansung, LG, Hyundai, Kia, etc. have all been around for decades, but a generation ago, their products were seen as cheap, mediocre knock-offs of their Japanese counterparts (remember the flammable Excels?) Now, certainly for electronics and hi-tech items, they have outdone them (except maybe when it comes to video game systems for which Japan has always maintained the edge). And no one makes fun of Korean cars anymore.
South Africa. From officially unequal, racially segregated, fascist, white supremacist state to pluralistic, inclusive democracy. The transition, which was remarkably peaceful, was 30-35 years ago and while the country is far from perfect with plenty if problems, it still functions and has to some degree stayed true to Mandela’s vision. Who else knows they were the first country to officially protect sexual orientation in their constitution?
Image credits: Exotic-Ferret-3452
#18
Vietnam. The communists “won”, and yet 15 years later Vietnam was one of the most capitalist countries in the world. Now all your textiles and furniture is made there.
Image credits: nostrademons
#19
Rwanda – from genocide 30 years ago to one of the cleanest, safest cities I’ve ever been to.
Image credits: Afireinside11
#20
India went from the largest producer of goods with the richest province and royal family in the world in 1700 to a broke nation that was a buyer of goods by 1857. That was a reversal of over 3000 years of history lol.
Image credits: SatynMalanaphy
#21
Not a country, but Mexico City – from a “dangerous area” to the biggest hotspot of food, culture, design, fashion, etc
For a country, probably Croatia, although Serbia is coming up too
Image credits: Jon-esq
#22
I still find Saudi Arabia attempts wild
Image credits: Gigaboa
#23
New Zealand. International money laundering hub, internally run by a coalition of classic European blokes and South American gangs, supported by a legal system adapted to enabling coverups in advance. Rebranded as milk and apples. On which they’d have you believe an island with no mineral resources can run a first world economy and lots and lots of [substances].
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Image credits: SchoolForSedition
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